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Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Gamble dog in the near future?

This morning, I set up a sequence in the backyard from a Distance Challenge article, by Jane Simmons-Moake, in an old Clean Run issue (March 2009, p. 78, Figure 11). I knew that I wouldn't be able to handle Wall-e from the green line (up to 30 feet), but I was going to try the blue line (up to 10-15 feet). The sequence involved four jumps and a tunnel; I shortened the original sequence for my limited equipment! First, I ran with Wall-e at our usual working distance, which he did really really well and speedily! For the second rep, I handled at the 10-15 feet distance. WOW, he got it right away and I even layered the jump at the end!

I think I'll probably enter him in a couple of Starters Gamblers runs in July. I'll enter him at 10" for the Gamblers, but his next Jumpers runs (likely in September) will be at 16" and that will be his height from then on until he's a veteran.

PS. Mom hasn't yet really taught me to relax around cars. Somehow if I am tied out in the front yard, I generally don't bark until mom unties me and then I go crazy. Mom totally wishes she could find a way to get me to leave cars alone completely!

We have worked on some gambler stuff in my class, and I have been suprised how much my dogs understand if I use motion, stay way far away from the line so I can move in if they need to see which way we are going, and bet you guys could easily do a gamble. My first few gambles I did I messed up by trying to stay close to the line, then when my dog looked at me I had no where to move forward if that makes sense. Duh, and of course right before I went in probably a dozen friends said make sure you stay far away from the gamble line so you can move, but duh...it takes me longer then some to learn, LOL. I can not wait to see some video of your future gamblers runs, or of your practice, it sounds like that went wonderfully.

Welcome!

Hi there! It's good to see you stopping in at my blog. On Dream Dogz, I write about my two active dogs' agility training and trialing, and share all of the lessons I learn along the way. I also occasionally talk about our progress in dealing with my dogs' specific "challenges" that we are slowly, but surely, overcoming together (specifically, Mika's dog reactivity and Wall-e's fear of constant noises).